


Make a Wish

by scribblemyname



Category: Fate/Zero, ロード・エルメロイⅡ世の事件簿 - 三田誠 | Lord El-Melloi II Case Files - Sanda Makoto
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Implications of an Alternate Holy Grail War, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/pseuds/scribblemyname
Summary: Her fondest, dearest wish. The wish that could change everything.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2019





	Make a Wish

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tren/gifts).



"Make a wish, Gray." That warm voice, that motherly smile, and a fair white being that seemed to represent all the Grail had once been meant to be. Gray shouldn't even be here, in _this_ war, but she had won. "The power of the Holy Grail is yours."

Gray could feel that power in her body, waiting to be wielded. Add was mercifully quiet, but she wondered for a moment what he would advise her to choose.

Many would think that she could wish to change herself, return to the face and person she used to be, not the person she was born to be, but rather the person she'd been born _as_. The only reason she could hold the "untainted" grail at all was that though she was not a Servant, she _was_ a sibyl and the properties of Arturia Pendragon have overwritten so many of her own. (It could have been worse. Waver Velvet might not have found her and saved her before she became nothing more than an empty vessel for the Heroic Spirit herself.

Her fondest, dearest wish. The wish that could change everything.

Instead she thought of shishou, his careful fingers on a tiny scrap of scarlet cloth, and _reached_.

* * *

"Shishou," a soft, feminine voice sounds tentatively behind him.

Waver whirls around, expecting another Servant, tears still blurring his vision. It does for a moment seem like what he expects, but she's directed that word, Master, at him and he can barely make out her features under the grey hood pulled down over her face.

"Who's there? Who are you?" His king was gone, and there was no one here but Waver, a third-rate mage, to defend.

She looked up just enough for him to see the tears in her eyes, to almost think she was someone he'd seen before, the Einzbern Servant, but she kept her face averted and said softly, "You'll see him again one day. I'm sure of it."

He wanted to drop his mouth open in shock, wanted to burst into even more of his futile tears. Instead he stood there trembling. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What do you want with me?"

"I'm Gray, shishou." She curtsied in her cloak. "You saved me once." Finally her face came up and he recoiled at the visage. Her mouth was set grimly. "I will try to save you."

* * *

It wasn't enough to see. She'd thought it would be. It wasn't enough to only feel and try to offer what pitiful comfort she could. But he didn't know her in this time and neither of them were given to hugs or tender gestures.

Gray did know what powers she possessed however, and that Ea was unique, but not the only weapon of its kind.

Some things weren't actually just noble phantasms. They were not swords, were not lances, but ancient divine constructs sealed within the forms of more familiar weapons, and their functions were not nearly so minor in scope as a single battle between minor powers.

Time and a wish, a wish to bring comfort to a young mage's heart, not granted in the first pass through. Time again and the Grail let forth its own power, calling on the life force within six Heroic Spirits to weave a new reality anew.

Is the enemy more powerful than yourself?

Is the enemy an elemental?

Does the battle involve personal gain?

Is the battle against humanity?

Is the battle to live?

Are one's comrades in arms courageous?

Is the battle honorable?

Seven questions answered. Seven seals unlocked. Let me fight beside you, O King of my Master's heart!

The joy of _this_ king was that he welcomed those who would fight beside him, join the Ionioi Hetairoi, and share his dream. Her own dream would find answer in his, for it was one of his most sincere followers she sought to save.

"Have you a weapon?"

"I have a weapon."

She pulled Add from under her cloak and raised him. He knew just how serious it was as she began chanting the words to unlock his mystic code and release the seals upon what he contained.

The divine tower that stitched the two sides of the world together, the lance of the very heavens, stretched forth in a beam of golden light against the sword that represented the world, the underworld, and the heavens and tore them apart to make them anew.

Perhaps if Gilgamesh had suspected Rhongomyniad would be available, he would have wielded Ea differently.

In the end, Gray stood panting beside a great giant of a man, a stunned king, who threw back his head and laughed as a young boy, too skinny and small and happy in demeanor to possibly be Lord El-Melloi II, with all the cares this war had brought him, ran to embrace Iskandar.

"That is quite a lance, little lady," Iskandar opened curiously.

Add opened his mouth to comment, but didn't get more than a word out before Gray shook him furiously and reduced him to complaints for the ill treatment. She smiled, ducking her head, and averting her face.

"Shishou," she murmured happily to herself as the Grail slowly drew her away, to somewhen else.

* * *

Waver Velvet smiled a little as he tucked the relic of Iskandar away again, having reminded himself of the king he still chose to follow. They might have won the Holy Grail War if Saber and her Master had not found it tainted and destroyed it. But they did not lose, and he still cherished their goodbyes, their promises to meet again.

But for now, he straightened his back, for there were debts to repay, a scheming sadistic sister to fend off and aid, and unruly students to teach. There was an atrociously marked up paper from Flat, suggesting uses of magic that would likely result in the accidental annihilation of a city or three, and his young charge in the corner with a cup of tea and a small smile on her downturned face.

"Gray," he greeted her.

"Shishou."

It was time to start the day.


End file.
